“I see the talent level being able to put us in a competitive situation for the Super Bowl,” Jones said in a 90-plus-minute session with reporters on the team’s luxury bus Friday afternoon from the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. “I saw it at the start of that [2010] season and I see it with what we had last year, that there’s a talent level that can compete for a Super Bowl.”

All indications are that, despite the Cowboys’ defense reaching historic lows and offensively finding new and creative ways to blow games they had won, Jerry Jones believes his team is positioned, as is, to do something they have not done in 16 years; namely, compete for a Super Bowl.

While Jerry remains a true believer, son Stephen Jones is not drinking daddy’s Kool-Aid.

“Obviously we are not pleased with where we are on defense. We got to get better over there. I don’t know that we got good enough talent to win over there. We have to improve it.”

Some may see this as troubling, as a sign of front office disintegration and family infighting. I, however, as a lifelong Cowboys follower and Jonestown nonbeliever, find it hopeful. I resigned myself a couple years ago to the notion that Jerry Jones has lost his sense of direction and grip on reality where the Cowboys are concerned.

People who understand the dynamics of the constant pursuit of excellence and success will tell you that you have to forget the past. You have to forget past failure, lest you become paralyzed with fear or self-doubt. But you also have to forget past success or you will grow complacent or conceited and the competition will catch and surpass you.

You have to get your ass out of the past before you can set foot in the future. And you can quote me on that.

Jones built a Super Bowl dynasty shortly after buying the Cowboys. His team won three Super Bowls in four years. At least, that is how he remembers it. Most everyone else remembers that he hired Jimmy Johnson, who built Jones a football juggernaut. Then, he fired Johnson for not sharing the limelight enough, and he has been ignorantly but systematically dismantling and destroying a once-proud franchise ever since.

Jerry Jones will never see it that way. He will always believe in himself because he remembers how good he used to be. He is too ignorant, apparently, to understand that if his evaluation of the team’s talent is accurate, then this team’s problems are far deeper than even the most harsh Jones critic can imagine.

If this team has the talent to win a Super Bowl, then they lack something else. Maybe it is heart. Maybe it is chemistry. Maybe it is direction. Talent can be acquired. But you cannot give a group of gutless wonders the heart or will to win.

I, for one, believe the guys on this team have heart, for the most part. I believe they have the will to win. I even believe they have the coaching staff that can get them to the Promised Land. I do not believe they have the personnel.

I am with Stephen Jones in this debate. What the Cowboys need is more impact players, especially on defense. They have one in DeMarcus Ware. They potentially have another in Sean Lee. And that is it.

Gene has been an avid Dallas Cowboys fan for nearly five decades, which amounts to just about his entire life. The only time he was not a Cowboys fan was that brief period at the beginning of his life, when he didn't have all his baby teeth and could not yet say "Cowboys." As soon as quit slobbering, he started hollering, "Go Cowboys!"

You were going in the right direction in the article and then you showed why the Cowgirls don't get it either. Its "coaching stupid"

Look at the happless 49ers. 3 and 13 a year before and all they do is add a coach and the team almost wins a SB

Why are the Pats in the hunt every year, year after year even with no real stars except for Brady and who he makes a star. Its "Coaching stupid"

This league has shown over and over again that coaching account for over 35% of winning. That makes up for a lack of talent. To be sure you Dooo have to have superior talent to actually win the SB, Pats are an example of that, but to be competitive every year and in the [playoff with a chance nto go to the dance you need NOT Good but GREAT Coaching

In the course of business in the NFL a good owner would have fired two or three General Managers over the past 10 to 15 years for the lack of sucess this team had enjoyed. In addition to JJ building a championship team, you must remember that Jerry wasn't confronted with the Salary Cap when he first started. JJ couldn't replicate Dallas's sucess in Miami.